Ticket prices!!!!!!!!

[Kate3150]

I’m just having a scroll through of some shows I would like to go and see in London and am SHOCKED at how common I’m seeing £150, £220 per ticket!!!!

When did ticket prices become so extortionate?

Depends on the show. I rarely pay more than £40/50 and often less

I thought this recently when I looked at taking my boys to something. I was gobsmacked. Those prices are out of reach for so many, surely.

I know the arts/hospitality had to catch up after covid, but this feels like pure greed.

I can’t say when but I do hear you. We were waiting for quite a few shows when they were on tour near us and went then. It was cheaper ticket wise plus our travel expenses were less.

What shows are you looking at?

I normally pay between £60 - £80 for good tickets.

Another point that now we moved to gifting tickets for whatever occasion - makes getting Christmas/birthday/ anniversary presents much easier.

There are generally deals to be had! We got 4 for £200 in advance at Frozen a few weekends ago for really good seats. Not cheap but not Oasis-crazy.

We couldn’t have afforded £100+/ticket which was the standard price.

Keep shopping around! X

Depends on what it is, time of year and time of at. A Wednesday matinee has always been cheaper than a Saturday night.

Yes it's expensive, prohibitively so for a lot of people but it's nothing new.

Shows that your at local theatres will be cheaper.
I paid £100 each for DD and I to see Phantom on a Friday and it was worth every penny. Normally I pay £40 or so, there are cheaper seats available just not at the front or not without a restricted view. £35 on the night for row C for seats from the end at Hamilton.Pr you need to go to a matinee or midweek showing.

I hope it pays for proper wages for all theatre staff, NI etc will have gone up for theatres as much as anywhere else. Lots of theatres are in very old buildings, I'm sure the upkeep is £££

Use websites like seatplan to pick the best seats.

If you are clever you can pick up some excellent seats marked restricted view that in reality aren't (or not enough to impact much)

I spend ages flicking between the theatre website and seatplan / theatre monkey before booking.

Todaytix can have some good flash sales / rush tickets but as a rule for anything else I find them expensive.

@Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky yes I got fab seats for Hades town using view from my seat/ seat monkey, row F I think, towards the end of the row but no seats in front of me so a ton of leg space and the only thing I couldn't see was the very corner of the stage where nothing happened anyway.

When I went to gigs back in the day, tickets were about a tenner. I remember when Glastonbury was about £50. I feel sorry for young people who can't afford to see live music. I used to go to a gig every Friday.

I've never paid more than £65. And that's for good seats. I've seen Moulin Rouge, Matilda, and Tina the Musical to name a few in the past 12 months. Where are you finding those prices?

I never ever book anything for more than £80 and frequently - much more often - book tickets originally that price for around £15 using certain ticket sites. Helps if you can be flexible and can risk not getting one and trying another day.

I wanted to go and see micky Flanagan and the tickets were around £150. No chance am I paying that to go see a comedian.

I completely agree. But when I said something like this a few days ago, some chump popped up on the thread and said 'clearly you don't get out much!' 😂

For a start I DO get out plenty. And secondly, you don't need to get out much, to be able to see that the prices for some tickets these days, (for concerts and shows) are fucking farcical!

I can never find cheap tickets! The arts are becoming increasingly inaccessible for many

I agree with the pp who mentioned the sites for cheap last minute deals, and the ‘restricted view’ seating too. Got tickets for some family members for Christmas for ROH, cheapest seats were £14 for one show, £16 for another, yet seats two rows forward in the same section were more than double the price. Stalls were over £200! I too remember when £50 would get dress circle and some stalls. Local theatre can be good, but it’s still not cheap.

We're a ND family so we get free companion tickets (2 disabled dc so we get 2 companion tickets, or if it's just me and DH going then I qualify as a disabled person yoo and he comes as my carer). It means we can book months ahead and have more control over seat choice compared to the last minute ticket options. We can't risk getting restricted view tickets or having a row in front of us as the kids can get their view blocked by a taller adult which ruins it.

We haven't been to many West End shows yet though as the dcs are young - we took them to see Frozen and they have seen various Christmas shows like Snowman. But most of the other shows we take them to are shorter kids shows at smaller venues and they don't cost as much.

Those will be for the best seats. I've just booked Hamilton for £75 and they were not
The cheapest. Find seats next to more expensive ones as the view won't be that different.
Look at today tix, enter the lotteries, do rush tickets. I had a run of going to the West End and not paying over £25 a ticket. Just don't be too fussy.

Check out what seat deals they are - Hamilton has side seats (still ok view) for £20 each need getting once they are released
just had kids month that does deals (5 seats for Wizard of Oz for £244)

todaytix £25 deals (saw Prince of Egypt for £100 for 4)

You need to book Kids’ Week ! It’s actually 6 weeks this year . Last week in July to first week in September.
All tickets two for the price of one !
And despite the name you don’t have to have a ‘kid’ with you !
We come over every year from Dublin for it . Saw Hamilton , Les Mis ( again !!) , Guys and Dolls ( wow! ) and The Choir of Man ( awful !) for under 200 euro per person in total last week .
Tickets go on sale in June and you need to be ready !